Cradled by the Ocean

Written by: Muskaan Kaushik

Edited by: Saptarchi Biswas

Illustrated by: Deepshikha Banerjee

I was fighting, fighting with that last spark of strength

But I couldn’t anymore, my body betrayed me.

My muscles ached, the salt stung my eyes,

And my lungs begged for one, just one release.

But giving up seemed so easy

To let the water take me,

To let it win.

Then I did. I gave in.

The grueling struggle ceased, the chaos stilled,

And the crushing pressure became an inescapable embrace,

Firm yet tender, like a lover holding me close.

The currents softly stroked my hair,

The ocean’s silence dulled the world’s noise,

And in that silence, all my worries dissolved.

No frantic limbs, no desperate fights.

Only stillness.

Pain melted into comfort,

A weightless release,

A quiet surrender to the depths.

And oh, the irony

It was almost cruel,

To die cradled in the arms of the giver of life

To be consumed by the very thing

That sustains the world.

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